Apple Reportedly Planning to Move Mac mini Production to the U.S.

Following Tim Cook’s recent announcement that Apple will begin manufacturing a line of Macs in the U.S., DigiTimes claims to provide additional information on the plans, stating that the Mac Mini will be the beginning of Apple’s U.S. manufacturing – not the Mac Pro or iMac, as many previously thought.

Apple is reportedly set to move its Mac mini production lines back to the US with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to be responsible of handling establishment, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

The report claims that Foxconn already has over a dozen operating bases in the U.S., and is making recruitment plans to bring additional U.S. workers into their production force. As expected, the workers will be manning automated production lines, much like the ones Foxconn uses in China to build Apple products.

The report also notes that Mac mini shipments are expected to reach 1.4 million units by the end of 2012, and will be up 30 percent year-to-year with 1.8 million units in 2013. It’s worth noting that DigiTimes does have a somewhat spotty track record – but the Mac Mini is as good a starting place as any, especially for a trial run, as Apple sells fewer Mac Minis than other types of Macs.